


The Truth About Happy Endings

by AstroGirl



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Epistolary, Family, Future Fic, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-13
Updated: 2016-04-13
Packaged: 2018-06-02 01:47:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6545491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AstroGirl/pseuds/AstroGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An elderly Henry looks back on what he's learned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Truth About Happy Endings

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Trope Bingo, for the prompt "happy endings." 
> 
> Contains canon-appropriate amounts of earnest sentimentality. Which is to say, a _lot_.

To my daughters, and my grandchildren, and my great-grandchildren (because you're old enough to hear it, too):

It's funny. I once had a pen that would write without me even paying attention to it. They called me the Author, with a capital A, and I guess technically I still am, even if I haven't capital-W Written anything for a long time. I haven't done badly as a small-a author, either. But now that I sit down to write this to you, I find it hard to know how to start.

You're probably shaking your heads over how old-fashioned and weird I am to put this in a letter, anyway. But I still believe that some things are better written down. And, let's be honest, the times I've tried to talk to any of you about this stuff, you haven't really wanted to listen. "Oh, daddy, don't talk like that. We don't need to hear your last words of wisdom! You're going to be around for ages yet." Which I get. I don't blame you at all. Nobody likes thinking about losing people; believe me, I know. But the truth is, I'm _not_ going to be around for ages yet. I may be well-preserved for my age (and I suspect I might have magic to thank for that, even if neither of my moms ever directly admitted it), but I'm _ninety-three_. And while immortality might run in my family, at least on my dad's side, I've never had any interest in it, myself.

So, I'm not going to be here forever, and before I go, I wanted to leave you with one last piece of writing to read after I'm gone, some final thoughts about what I've learned in my life and what I want you to think of when you remember me. (I think I'll call it "Operation Elephant." Because they never forget. Hey, I'm allowed to make one last corny joke, right?) But, like I said, it's hard to know where to start.

Or maybe it isn't. Maybe it starts where everything starts: with "Once upon a time."

Once upon a time, there was a boy who lived in an enchanted town where nothing ever changed, and he grew up knowing in his heart that something was wrong, but not knowing what, or why, or having any idea that there was anything a little kid like him could do to make things better. And then, one day, his schoolteacher gave him a book, and he learned about hope, and heroism, and the power of stories. 

I know, I know, you know about all this already, and you don't need another speech about any of those things. You've heard enough, from enough people, over the years, and learned enough of those lessons on your own. But that's not what I want to talk about.

I want to talk about happy endings. I believed in them, desperately, when I was that child reading that storybook. We _all_ did. Whether we believed they were our inevitable destiny, or something we'd have to work for, or something that belonged to other people but never to us, everyone believed in the idea. I used to think, once I started thinking about it at all, that maybe it was the curse that did that, some deep-buried memory people had that things were supposed to be _happier._ But it wasn't. It's an idea that was always there.

Here's what I want to tell you, the one biggest thing I've learned in a life of learning big things: _There's no such thing as a happy ending_. Because there's no such thing as an ending. You just live your life. If you're lucky, you find love, you find happiness, you find a way to make a difference and to be the best person you can be. But through it all, there's always pain, there's always loss. There are always days when everything goes wrong and you wish you hadn't gotten out of bed. Times when True Love isn't enough, when the right choices are hard and the wrong choices are easy. Times when you find everything you've built in danger and times when you screw up so badly you fear you might never be able to put things right again. No matter _who_ you are. You don't get to leave all that behind and just be happy, not until you're dead. And, even then, only if you're able to let go and move on. 

But here's what you do get, what life is really made of: _happy middles_. All those moments in your life when your happiness isn't secure, isn't eternal, isn't perfect, but is so very, very _real_.

I've had a life of happy middles. Even when I didn't realize it, even back when I was young and naive and thought we were all playing for the Happy Ending prize, my life was already full of happy middles. I've done so many incredible things in my life since the day I first opened that storybook. I've fought monsters and saved worlds. I've been to the Enchanted Forest, and Camelot, and the Underworld. I've steered a pirate ship! I flew through the air with Peter Pan! OK, that one turned out really badly, but at the time, it was _amazing_. I've learned to be a hero, the real kind, the kind who's not only able to pick up a sword and fight an ogre, but to sit up all night with a crying baby, or to talk a friend out of a bad place. And, most importantly, I found my family, and I created another one of my own.

And that's what I want for you. All of you. Happy middles. Because the thing about happy middles is, even if they slip away from you for a little while because something happens to turn them sad – something like losing your dad or your grandpa, for instance – you can always get them back again. _Always._

Remember that for me. And remember that I love all of you. You are, every one of you, my heroes.

Love,  
your dad/grandpa/great-grandpa,  
Henry


End file.
